Keep your Passwords Strong

We are past the days of having the password ‘password123.’ If you want to protect your online accounts, you need a STRONG password.

What is a strong password?

8 to 14 characters, upper and lower case letters and numbers, AND a special character. WHAT?! How would I ever remember that? Using a Passphrase helps. A passphrase is where you substitute numbers or special characters for a letter. 2gre@t4you! This password says “Too Great for you!”

Also, do NOT have the same passwords for similar websites. Gmail, yahoo, hotmail accounts get hacked all of the time. Once the hacker has access to your e-mail they can see e-mails from your bank and will try the same user and password combination. You could add a tag line at the end of the strong password to make it easier to remember, Example: 2gre@t4you!gmail 2gre@4you!b@nk, and so on.

TREAT YOUR PASSWORD LIKE LIKE YOUR UNDERWEAR!! - Don't share it, Don't have it out in the open, and CHANGE it OFTEN!!

Don’t be Click Happy!

Don’t click on ads or pop-ups that say “WINNER!! WINNER!! CLICK NOW!!” If you do you will be a LOSER.

Don’t open or click on links in e-mails, instant message, or social media from someone that you don’t know. The link takes you to a website that is loaded with malicious software. Just like we told our kids to not get in a car or get candy from Strangers, warn them, “Don’t open e-mails, download attachments, or click on links from strangers.”

Don’t open or click on “weird” e-mails or Facebook status updates, messages from friends. Since these free e-mail accounts get hacked all of the time, the hackers use the address book to try hack other accounts. So if I get an e-mail from my brother-in-law (who NEVER e-mails me) with the subject line of, “Check out my new ride!” I will pick up the phone and see if he actually sent that e-mail. If he hasn’t, now he knows that his e-mail account has been hacked.

Facebook scams – I’ve seen people post links to sites that claim to offer free gift certificates to Cheesecake Factory, Costco, Walmart. THESE are SCAMS!! They are trying to gather information about you!! I promise!! You are NOT missing out on some great deal! Don’t click on the link. Tell your friend that they are mistaken. They are trying to gather information about you!! I promise!! You are NOT missing out on some great deal! Don’t click on the link. Tell your friend that they are mistaken.

Shop Safely

Shop on sites that have encrypted the web traffic. You can tell by looking at the address bar and seeing ‘https’ and a lock sign. Also, some websites have pictures with the ‘Verisign Trusted’ logo. This means that the website security has been reviewed by a third party.

Before you press the purchase button, make sure you read vendor reviews. How are they at fulfilling shipments? Are the products received as described? I typically buy from Amazon. If I can’t find something on Amazon, I use a vendor that supports paypal (paypal – commonly used online money transfer system). This way I don’t have to give my credit card information to random vendors. Also, around Thanksgiving time, there will be sites that have all of the security features (https, verisign, etc), and they are selling a TV for half the price. If it is too good to be true, don’t get fooled! It’s a scam!

Nothing in Life is FREE

Beware of peer-to-peer software. (peer-to-peer software – Any software that allows you to get and share files with other people online). Remember Nabster? Current peer-to-peer sites are Limewire, Bittorent, Sharaza, Kazaa, Bearshare. If you recognize any of those names as installed applications, remove them from your computer. There may be files (music, videos, games) that your child wanted to get. However, the files are often included with a FREE gift of pornography or malware.

Beware of free software. Again, only download software from a trusted source where you can see reviews of the software and make sure that it is ‘clean.’ Look for software at http://download.cnet.com/ or another site that has legitimate reviews of the software.

14 Responses to “Don’t Talk to Strangers! – Safe Web Surfing”

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Leave a Reply

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Thank you for your comment! I’m glad you like the site! I’m working on creating a RSS plugin. Until then you can follow me on facebook. (www.facebook.com\securemama – you need to ‘like’ my page to get update). I’m also on twitter @securemama.com

I have been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or weblog posts in this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I eventually stumbled upon this web site. Studying this info So i’m glad to express that I have a very good uncanny feeling I came upon exactly what I needed. I so much undoubtedly will make certain to do not put out of your mind this site and give it a glance on a constant basis.

Thank you! This blog has been up for two years. I’ve added a lot more content the past two months. Share with your friends. If you have any questions about the tutorials, leave a question in a comment.

Hello very nice site!! Guy .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds additionally?I’m glad to find so many useful information here in the submit, we want work out more techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .

For an article posted based upon keeping people safe online, I think you are not really aware of the risks on your own site and spammers using you to make money.

All the commenters on this page are using your blog to provide themselves (or who they work for) link backs in with their key words. They don’t care what is on the site, they only care about a link back with the key word they want to get a link back with.

Here is a clue: they don’t speak English as a first language, they say nothing relevant to the site itself except how fast it loads or how much they like the content, their names include obvious key words for products or services like “hotsex” or “Premium Account”. These blog spammers are making money from your naivete.

Solution: do one of two things- 1) Turn off website link backs or read your blog comments and approve them manually if they are “real”

This will help clean up the internet from spammers and help keep everything more safe for us all.

Hey would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using?
I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a hard time
choosing between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design seems
different then most blogs and I’m looking for something
completely unique. P.S My apologies for getting off-topic but I
had to ask!

I simply wanted to say thanks once again. I’m not certain the things I would have followed in the absence of the type of tricks contributed by you over such a area of interest. This was a very hard problem in my opinion, nevertheless finding out your well-written mode you resolved that made me to jump with delight. Now i’m happy for this help and hope that you know what a powerful job that you’re accomplishing training others thru your web blog. Most probably you have never got to know all of us.

It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d
without a doubt donate to this superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for book-marking
and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to brand new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group.